Paper tickets for games of chance commonly include an opaque portion that can be removed either through the use of “scratch-off” materials or alternatively “pull-tabs”. Both of these materials are used to hide from view until removed indicia such as numbers or symbols printed on the ticket. While scratch-off tickets use a coating that can be literally scraped off to reveal the indicia, pull-tabs have a laminate layer usually constructed of paper that can be at least partially removed to reveal the underlying indicia.
It has become common to use vending machines for selling games of chance. These machines usually have a choice of several games. In operation, a customer inserts money into the machine and presses a button to select a ticket for a particular game. The machine then produces the selected ticket from a slot. A significant drawback to this type of ticket vending is that the machines need to be preloaded with a variety of tickets for the various games being vended. This requires preprinting and shipping of the various tickets and frequent checking of the machines for refill. Furthermore, the rolls of preprinted tickets have redeemable value and there is always the possibility of loss or theft of the ticket rolls.
In an effort to avoid use of preprinted tickets, it has been proposed to use vending machines having the capability to print tickets on demand. However, such a method requires printing tickets through a substrate using prefabricated multi-layer thermal paper tickets and printing through the cover layer. The general solution has been to intensify the heat output produced by the direct thermal print head. This pre-lamination solution generally causes excessive wear on the thermal print head and paper cutter parts as well as resulting in slow print speed. These factors lead to increased unit maintenance costs. In addition, it has been found that the cost of pre-laminated paper is prohibitively expensive for use in a gaming environment.
In view of the foregoing it can be seen that there is a need for a new method and apparatus for producing a new ticket construction which avoids the necessity to preprint tickets and provides a ticket structure having an opaque security cover sheet.